Excel "Document not saved" message

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I cannot save my excel spreadsheet because this message comes up every time. I have tried a different name for the workbook several times but I always get the message. I have tried Excel Help but the search for this error message produced nothing. Any suggestions please?
Thanks
 

Slydude

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I have not encountered this problem yet with Excel but I did a bit of poking around. Here are the fixes that other users have reported.

1. Make sure you are running the current version of Excel. That seems to have fixed things for some users.
2. Repair permissions on the drive using Disk Utility.
3. Choose Save As and save the file. Some users have also suggested that with this method you must also choose a different file format such as Excel '97. This can cause some loss of formatting etc. if you have used a feature not present in the older file formats.
 
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Document not saved message

Thank you but:
The machine is only about 4 weeks old, it is Mountain Lion and I understand that supports latest updates.
Repair permissions did not work although there were some issues in the report - not that I understand what they meant
I have saved as a different name in Excel 97-2004 and can only wait to find out what features and formatting will not work.
Meanwhile I will have to keep the .xlsx open all the time until I know.
Thanks again.
 

Slydude

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Yes the latest updates are supported for Mountain Lion with that machine. But this is referring to having the most recent version of Excel. It will run on your machine but may or may not already be installed depending upon how recently Excel was installed. I think they released a minor update within the last few weeks.

The jury seems to be out on how well these steps fix the problem. It is entirely possible that you are experiencing a bug in Excel.

There are several permissions errors that occur regularly and can safely be ignored unless you are experiencing issues with other programs.
 
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Just out of curiosity, have you looked to see if the file is actually there, and that the error is from Excel wrongly saying it didn't save it? When/If you update Excel, it will close to update the files, so the .xlsx file will be closed at that time, so pretty much at this point, either the file is there, and you can close Excel, or it isn't, but to get an update to Excel, you'd have to close it and lose the file. Tough choices.
 
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Copy and paste the contents of this file to Text Edit or another text program in case you lose it. At least then you'll be able to reconstruct it.
 
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"file not saved" error message in Excel

From my own experience using Office 2011. If you encounter this error in Excel, the file is corrupted. Your macros disappear and the file cannot be saved. Unsaved data up to this point will be lost if you close the file. To avoid having this happen, update both Mac OS and Office software consistently. I find that when I skip a few months, the problem resurfaces.

Always "test" save your file when you first open it to make sure it isn't corrupted. That way you won't lose any data when you do get the error message. If you do get a "file not saved" error, close the file and update both Mac and Office software. Open the corrupted file and select/copy all the data. Retrieve an old backup copy (you do have backups!) and paste in the current data from the corrupted file. Save the backup file with the new data, close and discard the corrupted file and make sure the new file has correct dates, macros and the file name matches the old corrupted file so any links to other spread sheets still work.

I know it's a pain in the butt, however it works for me, I just had to go through the routine again this morning since I got remiss in updating the OS and Office file. I got it down to a science now so that the one or two times it happens a year, I only lose about a half hour of work time

Cheers!
 
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Follow up to "file not saved" error

As a follow up to my previous post, this morning I updated Excel, opened a series of different workbooks and one came back with a "file not saved" error message. So consistent updating doesn't always work. I've also found that when the file is not saved, the macros are all blown away in that file and if you continue to work with the corrupted file, the auto save function fails. I continue to rely on my backups but this is becoming a serious issue that Microsoft has yet to address adequately. I'm beginning to suspect it may have something to do with the macro functions since files where I have deleted the macros or don't have macros to begin with don't suffer the "file not saved" error.

From my own experience using Office 2011. If you encounter this error in Excel, the file is corrupted. Your macros disappear and the file cannot be saved. Unsaved data up to this point will be lost if you close the file. To avoid having this happen, update both Mac OS and Office software consistently. I find that when I skip a few months, the problem resurfaces.

Always "test" save your file when you first open it to make sure it isn't corrupted. That way you won't lose any data when you do get the error message. If you do get a "file not saved" error, close the file and update both Mac and Office software. Open the corrupted file and select/copy all the data. Retrieve an old backup copy (you do have backups!) and paste in the current data from the corrupted file. Save the backup file with the new data, close and discard the corrupted file and make sure the new file has correct dates, macros and the file name matches the old corrupted file so any links to other spread sheets still work.

I know it's a pain in the butt, however it works for me, I just had to go through the routine again this morning since I got remiss in updating the OS and Office file. I got it down to a science now so that the one or two times it happens a year, I only lose about a half hour of work time

Cheers!
 

chscag

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I'm not an Excel user, however, macros have been improved in the newer Office 2016 version. There may be reasons why you would not want to upgrade to the newer version but I just thought I would mention that. I have Office 2016 along with Office 2011 but still prefer to use Office 2011 at least until Microsoft makes some needed improvements.
 
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Where did the original workbook / file come from? How are you opening? The devil is always in the details...
 
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Original post is from 2013
 
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Sigh.

I'm usually pretty good about not getting caught in that trap. :(
 

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